awakening your passion

As a child I never knew what I wanted to be professionally. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t clueless. I just knew that I wanted a profession that would allow me to help people, but I knew that it wasn’t nursing or being a doctor or anything related to that. Every time at school they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I was embarrassed because I didn’t have the answer. He did not know the name of the profession he wanted to practice.

I finished high school and going to tertiary I had given up on finding that profession in which I wanted to be. clearly it was in my head and there is no such thing. Since I was good at drawing I decided, let me be an architect, at least I have the skills for that. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to Architecture because the points weren’t enough for that particular course, I managed to get my second choice which was Social Sciences because it includes Economics. It made sense to choose him because if I can’t get the profession I’m passionate about and good at, at least let me focus on being rich. I thought being an economist would get me there.

I chose Economics and Statistics as my majors, I had Psychology as one of the options for my first year. I was intrigued by this Psychology class, somehow it made me want to explore it more, but there was a setback, there was no psychology. As a course at the University, it was just an elective in my college and it was done in the College of Education. In the second year of my degree something happened, Psychology was introduced, finally something good is happening to me, I signed up for all Psychology classes for the second year and asked to change my major from Statistics to Psychology. I felt that psychology is something close to what I always wanted as a child, but not quite yet. I finished the career of Economics and Psychology. I wanted to do my masters in psychology, but I have to be specific, I didn’t want to end up giving therapy to people with mental disorders, I just wanted to guide them. One course resonated with me, Organizational/Industrial Psychology, at least I will finally guide people in their workplaces to be better people, leaders, team players, achieve optimal results and be happy at work.

In the meantime, I looked for a job and was hired at the Ministry of Labor and the Interior. I was still leaving my dream of becoming an Industrial Psychologist, I was already finding where the Ministry needed me as an Industrial Psychologist. Although I was not doing anything related to Psychology at work, I was involved in areas that sought to resonate with the field such as the Work Improvement Teams that make organizational diagnoses within the Ministry and provide recommendations and solutions. This was where I performed best because it was what I loved the most.

In 2010, 2 years in the Ministry, I was chosen to attend leadership training in Portland, Oregon, USA. I was excited and enthusiastic. This was the turning point in my life, I had been assigned a life coach, Tammy Zinsmeister, to guide me through the entire 2 weeks. Wow, she is in the profession that she loved since she was a child, it was called Life Coaching, finally. I didn’t sleep that night, she was creating a Life Plan to become a life coach. Something she guided me through. My two weeks were more meaningful to me than anyone who was there. I had finally figured out who I wanted to be, a life coach.

I started looking for schools that offer Life Coaching training, and in Botswana they weren’t there, they still aren’t there now. I finally got on the net and found the International Coaching Federation and the World Coaching Academy (WCA). I chose WCA because they had offered me a scholarship.

I am over the moon with the change in my life, I feel happier, thinking about coaching is like being on vacation somewhere advising a couple of friends on how to improve their lives. It is Coaching, it is a profession for others, it is a Life purpose for me.